SKK Mobile Glimpse Review: Momentary Glance

Before it is quite hard for some of us to buy a smartphone because of its expensive price and settle for a cheaper feature phones instead. However, as time goes by, smartphone became cheaper and cheaper to the point that it cost just as low as a dumb phone.

Today, companies like SKK Mobile offers a wide variety of entry level smartphones and one of them is the Glimpse. It packs a generous 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display powered by a MediaTek MT6572 dual core processor clocked at 1GHz each.

Key Specs:

Dual SIM , Dual Standby

4" capacitive WVGA (800x480) touchscreen display, 2-point multi-touch

Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2

1GHz Cortex-A7 dual core CPU, Mali-400 GPU, MediaTek MT6572 chipset

256MB of RAM

512MB internal (188.15MB usable), expandable up to 32GB via microSD

2MP main camera with LED flash

VGA secondary camera

WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot

3.5 Audio Jack

Stereo FM Radio

MP3/MP4 Player

Micro USB 2.0

Bluetooth

Sensors: Accelerometer

1400mAh Li-Ion Battery

Main Disadvantages:

No GPS

No Proximity Sensor

Low RAM

INTERFACE:

Lockscreen

The default lockscreen has a padlock icon inside a circle wherein you can drag it to the right to unlock the device. You can also go directly to the camera interface by swiping it to the left. If you have a notification like a new SMS, it will appear somewhere above the circle and you can drag it towards in order to read the message.

Homescreen

The homescreen can accommodate as much as 9 pages and as little as one page. There are five shortcuts below the screen, the middle always opens the app drawer while the remaining four can be customized.

Notification Panel & Quick Toggle Settings

The notification panel can be accessed by swiping one finger from the top of the screen going down. Any notifications are collapsible, meaning beside from the notification itself, there is an option below it. For example, a screenshot will give you the option to share it.

To access the quick toggle settings, use two fingers when swiping. Here you can control some of the most used settings like WiFi and Bluetooth in just one push.

Default Apps

Default Widgets

The default apps are arranged in 4 rows by 4 columns, among them only
five applications can be removed without the root access (Facebook,
Twitter, Viber, Opera Mini and SKK). The widgets on the other hand has a 2x3 layout, to add one to your homescreen just press and hold it.

DUAL SIM FUNCTIONALITY:

SIM Management

The phone supports dual SIM dual standby, to manage which SIM you want to use for a specific task just go to Settings>SIM Management. Here you can also disable one of your SIM if not in use to prolong the battery life.

TELEPHONY:

Telephony

The telephony does not have smart dialing, it will only display matching contact they have the same beginning. The Glimpse has no proximity sensor, but the screen automatically turns off once a call got connected. Be mindful though that once you turn on the screen (example, you need to dial a local number) it will not turn off again during the entire duration of the call unless you press the power key. The call quality is good, you can hear each other loud and clear.

The call logs shows all the calls made in and out of your phone, you can choose which SIM card information to display plus the option to filter it further by selecting incoming, outgoing or missed calls.

PHONEBOOK:

Contacts

Groups

The phonebook is divided into 3 tabs, the groups, contacts and favorites. Groups and contacts can display or store information from your phone and online accounts as well as from the two SIM card inserted in your phone in the case of the latter.

MESSAGING:

Messaging

The messages are arranged based on the latest time stamped, if you have unread message/s, a number will appear on the upper right corner (the number corresponds to the number of unread message/s). In a specific conversation, your message will appear on the right while his or her message is on the left, it is also color coded for easier identification.

To send an MMS, just attached anything on a message just be sure your settings are set properly and you have enough load to do so. You can also personalize the chat background and the notification alert.

EMAIL:

Email

Gmail

The email department consists of a generic email app and Gmail app, both are easy to set-up, just enter your username and password then hit next and you are good to go. Most of the basic email functions are covered like sync interval, adding signature, adding Cc/Bcc and attachments. They can also handle multiple accounts too.

MULTIMEDIA:

Gallery:

Gallery

The photos and videos on your phone can be viewed by default using the gallery. You can filter them based on Albums, Locations and Times. You can also share them locally via Bluetooth or online though supported applications like email and Facebook.

Photo Editor

The photo editor is integrated into the system, you can access it by going to a specific photo and selecting edit. Some of its functions include adding effects, adding frame, adjusting exposure, contrast and more.

Video Player:

Video Player

The video player can play all the files I threw at it, .avi, .flv, .3gp, .mp4 and .mkv up to 720p resolution. All the supported files will be displayed with thumbnail, title, length and size. The player itself is very basic, so if you want more powerful one just download another player like MX or MoBo player.

Music Player:

Music Player

All supported audio files are displayed in the music player, you can view them by Albums, Artist, Songs and Playlist. If a certain song has an album art, it will be displayed accordingly. The player will continue to play the songs even if you minimize it and if you do there will be a mini player on the notification panel.FM Radio:

FM Radio

The FM Radio is still an essential feature of a phone for most users, and the SKK Glimpse has it. An external antenna (wired headset and the likes) is needed for it to work. The broadcast channels can be searched automatically and you can record any broadcast if you want to.

Camera/Video:

Camera/Video

The camera and video share the same interface, the camera shutter is on top of the video button. On the upper right corner, the thumbnail of the last picture/video taken is shown.

Camera/Video Settings

The camera department is where most of the budget smartphone suffers and the SKK Glimpse has the same dilemma, it only has a 2MP sensor and does not have a flash of any kind. On the other hand, it can capture up to 720p video, but do not expect much about its quality.Sample Shots:

Browsers:

Browser

Opera Mini

The Glimpse has two browsers installed, the stock browser and the Opera Mini. Both can contain multiple tabs, however it is not recommended to do so due to low RAM size.

Games:

Candy Crush Saga

Pou

Subway Surfers

Temple Run 2

Zombie Tsunami

The relatively low RAM size limits you the kind of games you can install and run on the phone. The top 5 free games about are all playable, though you will encounter some hiccups when playing Temple Run 2.

Storage & Install Location

The total available internal storage is only 188MB which in every aspect is very small, the good thing is that you can use an external SD card and make it as your default storage.

CONNECTIVITY:

Tethering & Hotspot

The SKK Glimpse only supports 2G data connection, which is painfully slow, especially if you already experience how fast an LTE is. Although it is only 2G, the tethering and portable hotspot are still present.

WiFi

The phone has WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, which means it can detect a wide array of signals and supports WiFi direct too. Overall, the WiFi signal reception is stable, no sudden drop of signal experience during the review period.

PRODUCTIVITY:

Calendar

Calculator

Clock

File Manager

Sound Recorder

To Do

The productivity and organizing tools pre-installed are Calendar, To Do, Clock, Sound Recorder, Calculator and File Manager. If you need a document viewer/editor or other tools, you can just go to Play Store and download them.

GPS:

No GPS

Another downside of this phone is the lack of GPS, therefore you won't be able to use your favorite GPS app to track your location or navigate your way through.

OTHERS:

Search

The search app, as the name suggests, is an application to look something from the web, email, contacts and more.

My Lock

The My Lock app is supposed to change the lockscreen wallpaper when activated, however, it does not do so in my review unit.

Back-up & Restore

The backup and restore is an application wherein you can back-up your apps, games and personal data.

Facebook, Twitter & Viber

The Facebook, Twitter, Viber are social media apps installed by default on the Glimpse, if you do not use them you can simply uninstall them.

SIM Tool Kit

The SIM tool kit is an app where you can access some of the functions of your SIM cards.

BATTERY:

Battery Stats

I loop a 720p video (brightness and volume are set around 50%) and it managed to last for more than 3 hours. I repeat the test and the result is almost the same.

CONCLUSION:

The SKK Mobile Glimpse is suitable for those looking for a budget smartphone with the right amount of screen size. The 4-inch screen with WVGA resolution is ample enough in consuming multimedia contents especially that it can play a 720p videos smoothly and stutter free.

Overall, you can enjoy the phone as long as you keep your expectations low. Hopefully, in the near future they can at least include a 512MB of RAM to ensure smoother transitions and better multi-tasking.